Alex Ovechkin Interview

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Talking hockey, playoffs, and NHL 07 with the best young player in the game.

By Jon Robinson

If And 1 started a hockey team, Alex Ovechkin would be team captain. Call him A.O. on ice. Red Storm sliding the puck between his opponent's legs with the flair and fire of a streetball player showboating his way to the score.

Ovechkin's fans use the Internet to feed his almost cult-like following, e-mailing video links to the uninitiated. They watch him slide on his back and pull the impossible. Pause, rewind, play. Send the clip to 50 more. Repeat.

The greatest goal ever scored.

And that was only year one.

I'm sitting in a hotel lobby in Vancouver, wildly scribbling notes about the kid who can save hockey. Can Ovechkin and Crosby bring their sport back like LeBron and D-Wade did for hoops? Are they the chosen ones?

No sooner do I write the final words to that question and someone sits next to me. "I'm Alex," he says with a smile. The man who, that same night, would go on to win the Calder Trophy and be named Rookie of the Year, walks away from the crowd of NHL players surrounding him and for some reason takes a seat next to me. We shake hands and I tell him I'm a writer, that I'm working on a story on him, how he reminds me of a basketball player on skates.

A smile transforms his face. Besides hockey, basketball is his favorite sport.

Growing up, his mom won two Olympic gold medals as a member of the Russian hoops team. His dad played professional soccer.

A.O. was born to be a star.

"My parents did a great job," he tells me. "My father is my idol. He supports me all the time. He has given me the way to life."

A way shared by his coaches in Washington who tell him: "If you have a chance to do something, do it," Ovechkin explains. "Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Don't be afraid to take chances. Play how I know to play."

With speed, with grace, with poise.

A.O. looks to score in NHL 07.

His impact on the NHL was immediate. "After the first game, I thought to myself: 'You can do something here'."

"All his goals, they're not flukes," the legend says. "Most of the time, he beats guys one-on-one, then you get your highlight. He's going to be one of the best for years to come."

The new face of the game. A face who in one year, is also now the face of hockey videogames, scoring the cover of NHL 07.

"When I was young, a little guy, I always played videogames, NHL, and always paid attention to the photo on the box. I always wanted to have my photo there," Ovechkin says. "I'm really excited that all my guys who I grew up with, they'll see my photo, they'll play as me in the game back in Russia. Every game I score a hat trick. I enjoy my life right now. I play in the NHL. It was my dream. Being the best player, and having my photo on the game shows me I'm getting closer to that goal."

The new face of the game is now the face of his own videogame.

You'd think Ovechkin would feel the weight, the pressure of being picked as one of the saviors to his sport in desperate need of saving. "I don't feel pressure," he responds. "That's why I was successful. If I have a bad game, coaches, teammates tell me not to worry, next game I'll score. When people tell you this, it makes you comfortable. My team is like home. There is no pressure at home. They help me succeed."